Category: Main Project Inspirations

When considering what I wanted to produce for my final project, my mind immediately went to music and music instrument production. I’m not entirely sure why this happens, but it may be because I have experience with music instrument production through a class I took here at CU called Electronic Musical Instrument Design, or it…

Until today, I still had no idea what I wanted to do, which is one reason this post is late. Today, Wednesday March 2nd, was incredibly windy. While I was walking between classes the wind gave me an idea, an inspiration you could say. I decided to make a set of wind chimes. Some examples…

I was on the fence about what I wanted to do for this project and have changed my mind to do something with a bike. I recently watched a video of early 90’s cycling and was captivated by the colors and flash that riders had back then. All the bikes that they rode were made…

My idea for my final project is to make a very large scale music box; these little trinkets were always beautiful to me as a kid. My idea is to make a wall art version of these, mounting it on a canvas or something similar. One of the neat things about these things is…

For my final project, I would like to design and build a mechanical clock, or a similar mechanism. Although many clocks have been built before, I think I can apply a unique aesthetic to make the project my own. From a purely utilitarian perspective a clock has been done before, but it if you look…

I got the idea for my project from a few of pre-existing products that are a bit outside of my price-range: namely, the Korg Wavedrum, Roland HandSonic, and Nord Pad. Each of these are electronic drum pads used for music production/performance. The price is mainly the result of internal sound-engines (much like a synthesizer) which provide…

For my project, I’m developing a dynamic, illuminated divider wall for a theatre piece that I’m a part of. I’ve been fascinated by the fusion of organic materials and technology for a while, and I’ve done some pieces along these lines in the past: For both these previous projects and the one I’m…

I am not totally sure what I am going to do for my final project. However, my main idea at this point is to create a light fixture for my final project. My main inspiration is a fixture that I made in the past using a lot of LEDS and an arduino to control them….

http://www.mandalasacredgeometry.com/ The inspiration for my main project is sacred geometry. While working with perforated sheet metal, I noticed that two sheets with the same hole pattern creates interesting patterns when rotating in relation to each other. The resulting pattern is an array of dynamically changing hexagons. Feature image credit: http://fractalenlightenment.com/12086/artwork/unveiling-the-mystics-of-sacred-geometry

For my main project, I have been wanting to do a very intricate woodworking project for a while. I have been contemplating making a locket of a dark hardwood. The inspiration for this locket came from The Illusionist. In this movie, there is a secret pennant that the main character gives his childhood sweetheart. In the…

Being an outdoorsman I like the simplistic style and ruggedness of outdoor gear and gadgets, especially when it comes to camp tools, climbing gear, off-road equipment etc. There is some feel of military grade with a splash of bright color, usually in the form of anodized metals, that screams reliability and longevity. Many of the things I own fall…

What inspired me to become a mechanical engineer came from my fascination with the automotive world. Supercars, Formula 1, and other motorsports are often styled in an aesthetic that is head-turning but also functional in the sense that design features such as winglets provide an aggressive look but also help create downforce or redirect air…

I am going to be honest with you all, and myself right now. I do not have an idea for my final project. I have a few rough concepts floating around in my head, no no single idea that will count as something for the final project. A few design aesthetics that I like are…

For my main project, I am thinking making a infinity mirror (LED illusion mirror). Since LED light is a great representatives for modern electronic aesthetics. It is such a great decoration if I could hang my own hand-built LED illusion mirror on my own house’s wall. The only issue involved in this project is that soldering…

For my final project, I am want to create a dynamic sculptural-like device that allows a user to interact with music in a new way. My initial inspiration for this project came from the original implementation of frequency spectrum audio visualizers. These visualizers break the audio spectrum in to discrete chunks, and adjust bar levels…

While I have not yet settled on a singular idea, there are several inspirations which are guiding my decision making process. I am constantly inspired by the visual arts, literature, music, and philosophy and would like to incorporate one or more of these ideas into my work. One idea which arose from my interest in…

This post will be brief and not cohesive because I’m not yet sure what my project will be! I have a few ideas that I’m not thrilled about, and am kind of worried about the time that some of these projects would demand. Regardless, here are my thoughts: Robotics and control: I’d like to do…

I am not entirely sure what I am going to do for my project yet. I have played around with a couple of ideas, but I am leaning towards using a breadboard or Arduino to make my project come to life. I would love to be able to do some electronics work while making a…

For my main project I want to make something car related and cool. I’m thinking of making something like BMW’s new concept mirrorless rear view mirror. It reduces wind drag and gives the car a new and high tech feel. Below is a picture of BMW’s version:

For me, the concept of “time” is pretty fundamental to my outlook on life. The way people value time and who (or what) they give their time to say a lot about a person, and the variety of ways people spend it fascinates me. Athletes and artists dedicate the majority of their time to a skill, often…

This summer my buddy and I built some alcohol stoves from aluminum cans like the one shown above. These stoves are very light and run on isopropyl alcohol. I've always thought minimalist camping stoves are really incredible and look really cool, like the model above. Many of the compressed gas stoves look very similar to...

One of my favorite movies growing up was Tron not for the plot or anything, but because I thought the Tron universe was the coolest thing. The discs are cool and light bikes are awesome (I’d kill to have one), but I realized later I was most in awe with the LED aesthetic. In high…

I want to make a bicycle. More specifically I want to bring to life a zombie apocalypse, punch you in the face, cafe racer inspired cruiser bicycle. Finding my project for the main focus of this course has gone through a lot of refining, but I think I have settled on this final idea. I began…

For my final project I wanted to do something fun and interactive. In one of my previous posts I had mentioned that I greatly enjoy playing sports. One “sport” in particular that I enjoy is dodgeball. Because of this, my first idea was to create one of two things. The first things being a dodgeball…

After the great upcycling projects I have seen in class, I feel the bar was raised. Now I really want to come up with a very cool project, but at the time I am finding it hard to chose between various inspirations. Like most of us, I came across products that I wanted to buy…

When I first declared my major as mechanical engineering, one of my best friends gifted me a mechanical gear necklace. It was made of simple balsa wood and the gears were connected in such a way that they rotated altering the shape of the necklace. I loved the necklace, but the fragile wood soon broke…

I have been working on playing my guitar more often this semester. One thing that has helped with this is having my acoustic guitar on a stand in the living room of my house making it easy to pick up for a few minutes here every day as I walk through that room. While I…

I was really struggling to come up with an idea for this project. I originally wanted to create a product, something novel, as that’s where I want my career to go. Something where I could show you fancy hand sketches and then some sweet 3D printed prototype in a week or so, but I couldn’t…

As I mentioned in a previous post, the idea to create a barn door to divide my guest bathroom and laundry space has been largely due to necessity. Currently, the bathroom and laundry are not separated and guests have a front row seat to our dirty socks (among other things) and shelves of cleaning products. This…

My initial inspiration for the main project came from a burning desire for the project to somehow be useful. After spending a week or two thinking about what useful thing I could make, I realized that I was too caught up in the functionality of the piece rather than the aesthetic of the piece. So I went back…

For my main project, I have decided to make a stirling engine. I’ve wanted to make my own for a while now, but never got around to doing it. I’m not sure if I want to try a single cylinder version or to just do a low-temperature difference one like in Greg Potts office. …

I’m kind of going back and forth on ideas for my main project right now. Before I come out and say it, I’m going to do a bit more thinking. I can go into my inspirations though. There’s no shortage of them. I really like plants. All kinds of plants. Especially green ones that…

I’m still juggling between a few different ideas, but the two top ideas I am debating between are a light-up fan bed canopy and Neo’s parasol from the show RWBY. I will write my blog post mapping out both of these ideas. Light-Up Bed Canopy This idea is inspired by my team member Brittany Warly…

For my final project, I have a few ideas that I am bouncing around with… but I think I might go with this one. The current idea is to create a table top or wall mounted sculpture using ferrofluid. I have been fascinated by ferrofluid ever since I came across it years ago in a…

I’ve always loved the look of wood furniture and products. I grew up in a house with hardwood floors and as I grew up, I went from looking up at where I was going while sliding along the floor in socks to looking down at the incongruous grains as they slid out of view. Wood…

Trimpin is a kinetic sculptor and sound artist who visited the ATLAS Black Box theater last semester. Trimpin’s Website He installs exhibits where embedded microcontrollers around the room and within different components send MIDI data back to his computer and digitally produce sound. Some of the components produce live sound as well, as a reaction…

My overall project inspirations were two things; something I will actually use, and something that is important to me. This lead me down two roads, one which will be more likely and reasonable, and one that I will eventually do regardless of this class but am restricted by resources and time. The first idea is…

The vision that I have for my main project is to design glass writing boards (kinda like the title picture, but probably not that big) for the hallways in the dorm that I live on campus – Andrews Hall. This hall has been my home since I started my first year at CU, and the…

For my final project I knew that I wanted to do something with arrows. I learned how to shoot a bow with my grandfather when I was a child, and since then archery has become a favorite pastime of mine. For the upcycling project I considered using some old broken arrows as a material, but…

I’ve always loved these bikes: They’re a natural evolution from the lugged steel frames of the 60s-80s. Among bike enthusiasts, this is often recognized as a very 90s thing. The best the 90s had to offer. Unfortunately, they are not exactly becoming more common. Their component compatibility, increasingly obsolete. But I gotta have one. If I’m going…

Junior year of high school I may have been a bit of an adrenaline junkie. One frosty February morning, just outside of Boston, where ice covered half the roads and paths, I was hanging out with my friend Abby. Abby longboarded and on this day I found a board in her car and asked if I…

For my final project, I’d like to create an expanding table. Nothing quite like some of the intricate examples we saw in class, but a simple clean design. The aesthetic for this table will draw on a contemporary mix between organic materials and functional but attractive shapes, very much like my side table. I saw…

A few weeks ago I was looking for some inspiration for this design project and was having zero luck with finding something I actually wanted to make and would keep. Somehow I managed to stumble across an Infinity Mirror and instantly knew that this would be my project. The infinity mirror is a regular mirror…

I knew from the beginning of the semester that I wanted to make a mobile. In case you didn’t know what a mobile is exactly, a mobile is an device which typically hangs from the ceiling in a nursery and has objects balancing from all sides of it to hold the device in equilibrium. The…

Basically, I want to make a completely 3D-printed toy (for children or the young at heart!) that is capable of transforming from one configuration into another through simple manipulation (twist, push, pull, etc). The most difficult aspect of the project will be designing the snap-fit/sliding/rotating features that allow the transformation to occur. This will surely require lots of test prints,…

I am really inspired by nature, especially biomimicry! Biomimicry is to look at animals and plants for sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested evolution and strategies. Note that most animals and plants can create a lot of energy, chemical changes, and power with very little initial input energy, harmless in most cases,…

For my design project, I am inspired to build a swing bike. What is a swing bike, you ask? Well it’s quite simple, it’s a bike that swings. An extra pivot is added to the seat tube, effectively decoupling the front of the bike from the rear. This allows the rider to do all sorts…